Amazon Web Services (AWS) and venture capital firm Accel have launched ML Elevate 2023, a six-week accelerator program designed to support startups building generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. This marks the first time ML Elevate will exclusively focus on startups in this space.
Generative AI applications have gained popularity for their ability to comprehend and create realistic conversations, stories, images, videos, and music across various domains. These applications are powered by large pre-trained Machine Learning (ML) models known as foundation models (FMs). ML models built on AWS have already demonstrated their value by streamlining supply chains, personalizing digital experiences, and enhancing affordability and accessibility of goods and services.
In India alone, generative AI startups have raised over $475 million in private investments from January 2021 to May 2023, according to a recent study by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).
ML Elevate aims to empower generative AI startups by providing them with access to impactful AI models and tools, business and technical mentorship, curated resources, the AWS Activate program, and up to $200,000 in AWS Credits. The program also offers peer support from a community of leading AI and ML startup founders and the opportunity to scale production-ready generative AI applications on Amazon SageMaker JumpStart.
Startups that have already developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and plan to seek funding within the next 12-18 months are eligible to apply. Selected startups will participate in live virtual masterclasses featuring fireside chats and panel discussions by investors, industry leaders, and AWS experts. Notable speakers include Tom Mason, Chief Technology Officer at Stability AI, Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Asia-South at NVIDIA Graphics, and more. The program will also include a dedicated Demo Week, allowing startups to pitch their ideas to leading VC funds, angel investors, and industry leaders.
Vaishali Kasture, Director of AWS India and South Asia, expressed her excitement about supporting generative AI startups and driving innovation in the digital economy. Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, highlighted the increasing pace of innovation in generative AI and the opportunity that ML Elevate offers to startups in this field.
AWS, with its over 25 years of experience in ML, enables customers to build flexible, secure, and cost-effective generative AI applications on its platform. Recently, AWS introduced innovations such as Amazon Bedrock, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) AWS Inferentia2 instances, and Amazon EC2 Trn1 instances powered by AWS Trainium chips. These advancements aim to make generative AI accessible to businesses of all sizes, minimize the cost and energy requirements for running AI applications, and accelerate coding for developers.
Prominent startups like Stability AI, Anthropic, and AI21 are already leveraging AWS to drive innovation and adoption of generative AI technology.
ML Elevate builds on AWS’s commitment to India, as the company plans to invest $12.7 billion in the country by 2030, contributing significantly to India’s GDP and supporting local job creation.
The launch of ML Elevate 2023 demonstrates the sustained efforts by AWS and Accel to promote generative AI startups, foster innovation, and support India’s digital transformation. The program provides startups with the resources and mentorship needed to develop industry-focused generative AI solutions and contribute to the advancement of this rapidly evolving field.
